The Anglican Church at war

Given that over the next week or so most newspapers will have articles about the Anglican Church (of which the Church of England is part) fighting and falling apart, I thought it might be useful to think about what's going on, why it's come to this, and what the response of biblical Christians might be...

Starting today (Thursday) is a meeting of the 'primates' of the Anglican church - that is, all the Archbishops. The big thing they're going to talk about is what to do about the American Anglican Church. The problem is that a few years ago the American church (called The Episcopal Church) made an openly and actively gay man a bishop. The Bible, while calling us to love everyone and telling us that anyone can come to Jesus and be forgiven, also makes clear that active homosexuality is not the way God wants us to live and is therefore sinful. And that means that the American church has deliberately gone against what the Bible says (which they don't believe God wrote).

So it looks like the whole argument is about homosexuality, and that's what you'll read about and hear about in the media. But in fact the underlying argument is about whether the Anglican church is going to believe that God wrote the Bible and we should obey it even when it's really hard to do so, or whether the church is going to decide which bits of the Bible to obey and which bits to ignore. Obviously, that makes the argument a very serious one.

Because the Anglican church always moves slower than a turtle with a limp, it's taken till now to come to a head. And it could be messy. The African and Asian Anglican churches are almost all totally biblical, and the American church and some others (the Canadian, the New Zealand one), are almost all totally 'liberal' (that is, supportive of the American position). But some churches, like the Church of England, are split - that is, within the Church of England there are some people who are biblical, and try to obey what God says in the Bible, and some who are liberal, and want to ignore a large part of what the Bible says (that's a very simplistic view of things, but then this is a blog not a book!)

Why does it matter? Well it matters a lot in one sense because if the Anglican church as a whole, or (more likely) the Church of England on its own, becomes more and more liberal, then it will be harder and harder for Christians who want to live by what the Bible says to work for the Church of England (people like me!) For example, if in a few years' time vicars are told they must perform same-sex marriages (as already happens in places in America) then biblical vicars will refuse, and either be sacked or go to jail.

In another sense, it doesn't matter too much because we rely on Christ and not the church to save us, to teach us, to guide us and to bring us to his eternal kingdom. The whole of Christian history is littered with churches which stopped being biblical and turned away from Christ, and of groups of brave biblical men and women who set up new churches which did rely on Christ and believe that the Bible is God's Word (the Reformation is a good example of this). If the Anglican Church falls apart tomorrow, it would be very sad, but it wouldn't stop those of us who trust in Jesus' death on our place, revealed to us in God's Word, being saved Christians who can try to live Jesus' way and be with Jesus in eternity.

So what might biblical Christians do? Firstly, pray. Pray that God would ensure that the Anglican Church takes a firm stand on believing in the Bible and obeying God's word, and that people who don't want to do that would either change their minds or leave the church. Pray that if the Anglican Church doesn't do that, God would ensure that his people within the church keep going as true Christians.
Secondly, remember that Christ saves, church doesn't. If an individual church, or a whole demonination, stops believing in God's Word and trusting in God's Son, then we leave the church or denomination - but we don't lose our salvation. If you're at an Anglican church, remember you're a Christian first, Anglican second, and not the other way around.
Thirdly, don't be swayed by the media. Some of the media will present Bible-believing Christians as homophobic, prejudiced, narrow-minded bigots. We're not - we love all people and hate all sin, and we long for all people to repent of their sin and accept forgiveness from God. If we started telling people that God doesn't care how they live, that would be awful as people would then happily continue sinning, thinking God doesn't mind, and then face his judgement. Christians are not called to believe or say what's popular, but to believe and speak the truth that God reveals to us in his Word the Bible.